Workshop at Menokin focuses on conservation; RCC offers credit

Architects, craftspeople, contractors, historic site administrators, and the public are invited to a three-day workshop sponsored by the Menokin Foundation and Rappahannock Community College, to be held June 1-3 on the grounds of the home in Warsaw, Richmond County—now a National Historic Landmark—built by Declaration of Independence signer Francis Lightfoot Lee for himself and his wife, Rebecca Tayloe of nearby Mount Airy. The latest conservation methods now in use at Menokin will be discussed and demonstrated.

The course will use Menokin as a teaching laboratory for an intensive overview of 18 th -century framing and building techniques, and the conservation of historic masonry and wood elements. It will be taught by conservators John Greenwalt Lee, Charles A. Phillips, AIA, and Ellen Hagsten, who lead the Foundation's consulting conservation team. Enrollees will meet at Menokin's Martin Kirwan King Conservation and Visitors' Center. Tuition for the three-day program is $200 (to include lunch each day), and RCC will award continuing education credits to those who complete it.

Although Menokin is partially in ruin, approximately 80 percent of its original materials survive, including the original stones, brick and mortar; girders and joists; and the interior woodwork. In 1940, while the house and one outbuilding were still standing, the Historic American Buildings Survey undertook detailed photography and comprehensive measured drawings of the property, and in 1964 original pen and ink drawings of Menokin were found among the Tayloe family papers in the attic of Mount Airy . Four years later, as the house was in imminent danger of collapsing, the interior woodwork was removed by the owner and put into storage. This surprisingly well-preserved woodwork has been returned to Menokin, and can be viewed at the Conservation and Visitors' Center.

The Menokin Foundation believes that the hands-on process of learning the preservation of historic sites is as important as the final completion of conservation work at the Menokin ruins. Foundation President Helen Turner Murphy explains, “Here we have a historic house of which one-quarter remains standing with original plaster, floorboards and framing, while the remaining parts of the house, including all of the exquisite interior woodwork, exist in pieces. The rare, original presentation drawings and 1940 Historic American Building Survey documentation provide a ‘road map' to understanding how these pieces fit together.”

RCC president Dr. Elizabeth Crowther, who is also one of the trustees of the Menokin Foundation, comments, “The current state of Menokin provides an extraordinary opportunity for students to receive education and training on a broad spectrum of architectural conservation issues, including moisture problems, making and using historic repair mortars, woodwork repair and consolidation, techniques for removal of Portland cement pointing, and window restoration.”

RCC welcomes the opportunity to work with the Menokin Foundation on this program. Part of the college's mission is to promote the personal growth of its students; this partnership provides an excellent connection to an outstanding cultural and community educational experience.

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